Frontier Spotlight: The Top Data Center Stories for February 2018

Last month was a big one for the data center industry, as reflected in the most popular stories on Data Center Frontier, which was filled with mergers, new players and projects, and more money flowing into the data center business.

Topping the news was the giant move from Equinix with the purchase of Dallas Infomart for $800 million, along with big ticket development plans from EdgeCore and Vantage. Data Center Frontier also recently got a sneak peek inside of RagingWire Data Centers campus in Ashburn in Loudoun County. Other companies your peers were reading about in February included QTS, Compass Data Centers, CBRE, CyrusOne and more.

Here are the most popular data center articles for January 2018 on Data Center Frontier, ranked by page views:

EdgeCore Launches, Plans $2 Billion in Data Center Development : EdgeCore Internet Real Estate has launched with plans to build large data center campuses in six North American markets. The new company is led by former CoreSite CEO Tom Ray, and its lead backer is GIC, the sovereign wealth fund for the government of Singapore.

Vantage Lines Up $1.1 Billion to Build More Data Centers : Vantage Data Centers has lined up $1.1 billion in financing to build new data centers, using securitization financing, an approach that allows Vantage to pay lower interest rates on its debt.

The atrium of the Dallas Infomart is modeled after the Crystal Palace in London. (Photo: Rich Miller)

The Equinix Infomart: What It Means for the Data Center Industry :  The acquisition of the Dallas Infomart for $800 million is a strategic win for Equinix. The transaction also changes the game for the remainder of the Infomart portfolio, offering a clearer value proposition to acquirers and investors.

UL Introduces Safety Certifications for Data Centers : UL, the international safety consulting company, has introduced UL 3223, a comprehensive certification program that looks at all aspects of performance and safety in the data center.

Closer Look: RagingWire’s New Ashburn Data Center Campus : Data Center Frontier recently had a look inside the new RagingWire Data Centers campus in Ashburn in Loudoun County, where the company plans to build seven data centers. Check out our video tour.

Data Center Leasing in Northern Virginia Hits Record 115 MW in 2017 : Developers in Northern Virginia leased a record 115 megawatts of data center space in 2017, topping the 113 megawatts (MWs) absorbed in 2017, according to a new report. Phoenix and Atlanta saw strong gains, while leasing was down in Silicon Valley due to lack of supply.

Going Greenfield: QTS Ashburn Project Reflects Growing Focus on Hyperscale: As it sharpens its focus on hyperscale data centers, QTS is now building “greenfield” construction on open land rather than retrofitting an existing facility. Here’s a look at the company’s new project in Ashburn, Virginia.

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An illustration of a Compass EdgePoint data center housed at a corporate loading dock, with power infrastructure and secure entrance. (Image: Compass Datacenters)

Compass Extends Its Reach From the Edge to the Cloud: Compass Datacenters has bought EdgePoint Systems and BitBox USA, two distributed computing specialists that will form the nucleus of a new edge computing initiative, Compass EdgePoint.

CBRE Partners With LitBit to Use AI to Manage Data Centers: CBRE Data Centre Solutions is using artificial intelligence technology from LitBit to automate the management of data center facilities. CBRE manages more than 800 data centers around the world.

GDS May Help CyrusOne Build Data Centers Faster: CyrusOne CTO Kevin Timmons says the company’s partnership with Chinese data center developer GDS will help it build data centers even faster and at lower cost.

Expert Opinion — Top February Voices of the Industry Columns

Data Center Frontier’s Voices of the Industry columns remained popular in February, and top columns covered topics such as what’s in store for the data center this year, as well as answers to some of the biggest challenges facing today’s data center developers. Readers also discovered emerging competition in the cloud market as the big names fight for “cloud supremacy.”

Check out the top three columns on Data Center Frontier in February 2018:

Data Center Developers: Meeting the Requirements of Today’s Challenges: How do data center operators design and build for a varying array of different users and insure they are deploying the right product type to maximize their success? In this edition of Voices of the Industry, Chris Kincaid, Senior Vice President of Design & Construction at Stream Data Centers, explores some of the biggest design and construction challenges for today’s data center developers, and how to tackle them.

New Year, New Outlook: What Does 2018 Hold for the Data Center: In this edition of Voices of the Industry, Jeff Klaus, GM of Intel Data Center Management Solutions, explores how 2018 will shape out for the data center and colocation industry. Key takeaway: Data center managers will be the MVPs of the enterprise in 2018.

Danielle Hagel, Senior Manager of CoreSite’s customer engagement program, explores who’s in line for cloud supremacy in the market, as well as growing competition.

The Emerging Contender for Cloud Supremacy: The $240 billion-per-year-and-growing global cloud industry would seem, on the surface, to have plenty of room for everyone, but two major players – Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Microsoft – have staked sizable claims in the market and are slowly crowding out competitors. In this week’s Voices of the Industry column, Danielle Hagel, Senior Manager of CoreSite’s customer engagement program, explores who’s in line for Cloud supremacy in the market, as well as growing competition.

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